December 2014

December 27, 2014

“We like to make it intimate here at Joe’s Pub,” says Sandra Bernhard, illustrating her trademark penchant for frank talk, “You don’t need that Broadway Waspy Albee bull--.” Arriving onstage in a sequined Suzy Wong number and silver go-go boots, Bernhard sings, “Where am I going?,” delighted that she’s right here, accompanied by her long time music director Mitch Kaplan on piano, John Badamo on drums, and guitarist Kevin Andreas, for a happy, entertaining blend of snark and sass. She had the opening nighters of a six-day run at Joe’s Pub eating her brand—now that she is one-- out of the palm of her hand, and buying “merch” in the Public Theater lobby, as candor gives way to commerce.

December 21, 2014

The idea of Important differs from Best: for American Sniper,Selma, and Unbroken, Best is beside the point. Each film is enormously engaging, highly recommended, and grounded in history on a large canvas. While many reviewers are concerned with the qualities that push films into the awards race, and all three deserve the Oscar nod for Best Picture, it is the aspect of Important that makes them must-see films, even when the subject may be difficult.

December 18, 2014

Jonny Donahoe walks around the theater dropping notes on the audience members’ laps as you are seated for Every Brilliant Thing. “Oh, you are the star, right?” observed a man picking up his paper. “I am the play,” said Donahoe. Well, not quite. I hope it is not revealing too much to say that his supporting cast is you, if you are adventurous enough to attend this brisk hour of an uplifting, funny play on a potentially grim subject. Author of this engaging night of theater with Duncan Macmillan, Donahoe treats the delicate subject of a suicidal mother and a son’s attempts to cheer her into life by listing as many brilliant things as can be imagined.

December 15, 2014

You may remember Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty in Walter Salles’ On the Road. The Minnesota-born actor played the character inspired by the famed fast talking fast driving, Neal Cassady, son of a Denver wino in the movie based on Jack Kerouac’s iconic novel. During his time in New York doing publicity for Salles’ 2012 film, Hedlund said a dealer was trying to sell him Cassady’s bathroom door. Such is the beat industry! Didn’t Johnny Depp buy Kerouac’s raincoat? There’s the literature, and then there are the artifacts: which is more important, and to whom?

December 13, 2014

That Side Show will close its run at the St. James Theater on Broadway is sad news. After an ebullient first preview in late October, the revival had a meet & greet at Sardi’s. Many of the show’s producers had not yet met the musical’s stars, Erin Davie and Emily Padgett as the Hilton sisters, conjoined twins, whose pioneering showbiz story is retold, Matthew Hydzik and Ryan Silverman as the men/promoters in their lives, and David St. Louis as their loving caretaker. They also had not yet met director Bill Condon, who took a controversial piece about unusual acts (eh, freaks) in the age of burlesque and vaudeville, revised it from Bill Russell’s original book, amplifying the twins’ backstory, and made it soar. Henry Krieger’s music, especially “I Will Never Leave You” was always great. Rising to its Dreamgirls moment, this show was making the producers very happy.

December 12, 2014

Remember in Pretty Woman when Richard Gere asks Julia Roberts what happens after the prince rescues Cinderella? Not missing a beat, she says, she rescues him right back. In Top Five,Rosario Dawson’sChelsea Brown tells Chris Rock’s Andre Allen, Cinderella does what every woman who knows what she wants does: she leaves something behind. It’s all in the shoe. Keep your eye on the gold pump.

December 11, 2014

Bewildered by many choices made in the new Mark Wahlberg film, The Gambler, a remake based on his quasi-autobiographical script with a nod to Dostoyevsky’s short story, James Toback was not quiet about his dismay that the new filmmakers, director Rupert Wyatt and screenwriter William Monahan, did not make a sequel to his movie, rather than try to redo the 1974 film starring James Caan. It would have been so easy, he said holding court at a banquette at Colicchio & Sons in the meatpacking. The filmmakers seem to know a lot about addiction, but not very much about gambling.

December 09, 2014

Missing from Monday’s lunch at The Leopard, Meryl Streep, wicked as an ugly witch in Rob Marshall’s movie adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods, was on a train returning to the city from the Kennedy Center Honors. No matter. James Corden, who plays The Baker in the film’s intertwining fairy tales, spontaneously fielded questions in her behalf, reminding everyone of her witch preparation as Margaret Thatcher. This was a golden moment, proof in fact, that the British actor will be perfect as Late Late Show host on CBS, filling Craig Ferguson’s shoes when he retires. “They’ve made a big mistake,” Corden quipped, nailing British self-deprecation. “They’ve been trying for years to keep people like me off television.”

December 08, 2014

Back in the day, Susan Sontag was the big anxiety of influence. Public intellectual, essayist, activist, provocateur, critic, and novelist, she was the giant thinker to topple for any woman. Few could claim her intellectual maternity. “I feel sorry for you,” said one male professor to the women in his class, as if we were competing with her. One of a kind, she was revered; even the most arrogant of men took notice of a woman who occupied so vital a cultural role, one to which men aspired. How odd it feels to write these words in a time when women can achieve anything, and yet I cannot think of anyone of either gender whose commitment to philosophy and politics could match hers. Now HBO will air a documentary about Susan Sontag directed by Nancy Kates, illuminating a moment in American letters when the quality of one’s mind was prized, admired and awarded.

December 06, 2014

Okay. It was my fault. I was late for last night’s evening performance. Heavy rain. Snarled traffic on 8th Avenue. By 6 minutes for the 8 o’clock curtain. And was herded into the Golden Theater’s foyer to wait 45 minutes till the first intermission for Edward Albee’sA Delicate Balance. Twenty-five others waited too, with headsets, watching the play on an overhead monitor. Security gave us a pat down, searched our belongings. “Draconian,” exclaimed one woman at the theater’s latecomer policy, before she stormed off into the storm. “I’m outta here,” announced another prior to leaving too. The glass doors began to steam from the heat. The man next to me had rivulets running down his face. As to that monitor, you could not tell Glenn Close from Lindsay Duncan. It was a very expensive ticket.